A Pictorial Essay On Tustin's "Most Cursed Restaurant Location"

For those just tuning in, there is a shack at the corner of Newport and Walnut (right in front of the venerable sushi bar, Sushi Wasabi) that has gone through more restaurants than Elizabeth Taylor goes through husbands. Every town has one. This one is Tustin's.

The latest eatery to attempt to survive is an outpost of Holé Molé, a fish taco mini-chain you've probably seen in the Long Beach area. Right now, Holé Molé is still hiring, so the place hasn't yet opened; but let's take this moment to reflect on the few eateries that have come and gone over the years in a spot I once dubbed "The Most Cursed Restaurant Location In Tustin".

Believe or not, I now have amassed enough pictures of all the past failures to make a pictorial essay.

This is actually the second incarnation of The Patio, but it didn't serve Korean BBQ like the original. Instead it just added Asian skewers to its menu of seafood, which I hear was just the same stuff Cajun Bistro served.

Cajun Bistro.

(Picture taken December 20, 2011)

Cajun Bistro was a carbon-copy of Boiling Crab, serving the same kind of boil-in-bag crabs, shrimp and crawfish. They painted the shack brownish red for the occasion. For a while, it offered fresh baked rolls for free and took Polaroids of its customers to pin to the walls as if to prove to other customers how many people actually came to eat here. Interestingly, I was captured on one of these pictures, although I made sure my head was turned. I gave them an alias when they asked for a name to write down on the picture.

The Patio, Part 1.

(Picture Taken July 21, 2010)

This picture was taken after Hebaragi folded and The Patio was just about to put up its sign. I am unsure of why The Patio thought it could do better serving Korean BBQ than Hebaragi, especially when I discovered that it did not offer pork jowl, the item that distinguished Hebaragi from all other OC KBBQ's.

Hebaragi.

(Picture taken January 28, 2010)

This one, as far as I'm concerned was the best of the lot. Hebaragi was a Korean BBQ joint and a very good one at that. Read my review here. I've also eaten at what came before Hebaragi, which were various incarnations of Korean restaurants that aren't worth mentioning. My only regret is not having the foresight to take pictures of their signs while they lasted.